Apple hits new “Beats” ahead of WWDC

Odds are on home-related services for Apple’s developers conference

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Well, now that you can scratch Apple Inc.’s acquisition of Beats Music and Beats Electronics off the list of things you might have expected the company to announce at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference next week, the spotlight shifts toward what Apple can do to top that $3 billion buy.

Wednesday’s Beats acquisition announcement aside, Apple has been pretty quiet this year about what it has in the pipeline as far as new deals and gadgets are concerned. Even for a company as notoriously tight-lipped as Apple
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2014 has so far been a mostly silent year on the new-device front. A cursory glance through the company’s press releases shows only updates to the iPad with Retina display in March, and the MacBook Air laptop at the end of April.

So it should come as no surprise that interest all over the world is picking up ahead of WWDC, and what Chief Executive Tim Cook and other Apple officials will show off to the thousands of attendees when the show kicks off Monday in San Francisco.

And as much as many people are hoping for Apple to use the conference to roll out what is being called the iPhone 6, those who follow Apple for a living say you shouldn’t hold your breath next week waiting for the next iteration of the smartphone that Apple sold 43.7 million of during the first quarter of the year.

“Typically this is a software conference,” said Tavis McCourt, of Raymond James. “No hardware [will be] announced. Just new features in iOS 8 and Mac OS.”

But Apple likes to make at least some sort of splash with its developers conference. Over the last four years, Apple has used the stage at San Francisco’s Moscone West Center to debut several things, including iTunes Radio and iOS 7 [2013], a new MacBook Pro and preview of iOS 6 [2012], iCloud and iOS 5 [2011, also Steve Jobs’ final WWDC appearance] and the iPhone 4 [2010].

Apple CEO Cook has said this year that the company plans on entering new product categories, which has fueled speculation that Apple will [finally, in the minds of many] show off the so-called iWatch and an Apple Television, which is not to be confused with the Apple TV set-top box.

But, as McCourt said, WWDC is a software conference, and Apple can be expected to use its bully pulpit there to give something to its developers in that regard. And there is one term that is getting thrown around more than others heading into next week’s gathering of the Apple faithful: services.

Specifically, services involving the living room and Apple’s efforts to connect even more of consumers’ daily life and electronic products to the Apple ecosystem.

“It’s logical, given that it’s a developers conference to have a connected home service or product to show off,” said Gene Munster, of Piper Jaffray. “The simple takeaway is that the real sizzle is going to be around the living room.”

Munster said that with the living room in mind, it remains possible that Apple might use WWDC to show off the long-rumored Apple Television and set up consumer demand for the end-of-the-year Christmas shopping season, which also falls inside of what is historically Apple’s biggest revenue period of the year.

But the calendar keeps moving on regardless of what Apple has in mind.

“The question will be is it off the table for the year,” Munster said. “That’s not necessarily, but every day that goes by is a day that they don’t have something on the market.”

Whether it ends up being some new gear or service, one thing is certain: Whatever Apple shows off at WWDC, it will be doing so to the rhythm of some new Beats at its Cupertino, Calif. headquarters.

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